


041 Grief

by rhicola



Series: Bethyl Prompt List [9]
Category: The Walking Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-01-19
Packaged: 2018-03-08 04:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3195671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhicola/pseuds/rhicola





	041 Grief

“Hey, Beth!” Daryl called ahead as he stopped and squatted beside the shell of a turtle making his way across the field they were cutting through.

He had almost stepped on it, actually, and was thankful for his habit of staring at his feet while he walked. In fear, the turtle tucked itself away in the shell that Daryl now tapped on lightly. “C’mon, buddy,” he coaxed as Beth approached and stooped down next to him. “Gotta pretty lady who wants to see ya.”

Beth scoffed and shoved her shoulder against Daryl’s roughly. “Is he alive?” she asked, not verbally responding to his compliment, but instead blushing because of it. They hadn’t talked about that night at the funeral home, when feelings were implied and a single kiss was shared, but the two acted as if they were a couple—or at least in the flirting stages of being a couple. Beth didn’t understand it, nor did she want to question it in fear of pushing Daryl away or being too clingy. In all honesty, she liked it. And she liked him, and she wanted to see where it went naturally without labeling it yet.

As she spoke, the turtle’s head poked out from behind the shell and he stepped forward away from Daryl. “We should keep him,” Beth suggested and reached forward, picking the turtle up. “Name him an’ keep him as a pet.”

She held the turtle to her chest and stood straight, leading the way across the field again with Daryl following at her heels.

“So, what’re we namin’ him?” he asked, coming up next to Beth to get a good look at their new turtle friend.

Beth answered with a shrug and a shake of her head. “I’unno,” she mumbled, bringing the turtle up so that it was level with her eyes. “All I know is that I can’t wait to show Maggie and Daddy when…”

Her voice trailed off at the sudden realization that her father was actually gone. She always knew, it was always in the back of her mind. But it hadn’t quite sunk in yet, having been on the run since they left the prison. She felt like she and Daryl were on an extended supply run, and they’d return to the prison sooner or later with the things the group needed. She’d been under the assumption she’d get to hug her daddy again once this was all over. But he was gone, and the grief tugged heavily on her heart all of a sudden, swinging from it the way that she swung from his hands as a child.

“Daryl…” she managed, her breath tangled in the lump that formed in her throat. Tears sprang to her eyes and she honestly didn’t know whether it was because of her father’s death or because of her inability to suck in air. Her lungs felt collapsed under the weight of her swollen heart.

Beth didn’t only lose her father that day. She lost an entire family, and not knowing whether any of them got out alive was almost as bad as accepting they were all dead and gone.

The tears fell now and splashed against the turtle’s shell. A sob wracked her body as she finally inhaled deeply and let out a quiet whine. Her chest ached and her head felt flooded with thoughts, her mind drowning in them. _Would they find the others? Was Maggie dead? What about Glenn? And Rick and Carl? Michonne, Carol, Tyreese? What about Judith and the girls?_ The turtle’s shell was lifted out of her hands gently as Daryl took it from her and placed him on the ground at their feet, only to replace the reptile with himself. He hugged her tightly, pressing her against his chest and cradling her head the way he did with Judith, delicately. Comfortingly.

“Daryl, they’re gone,” Beth wept into his shirt, sniffling between her words as she tried to catch her breath.


End file.
